


When Pushed By Extremes

by AjanisApprentice



Series: Whumptober 2020 [2]
Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Extreme Weather, F/M, Fire, Hypothermia, I Don't feel so well, No. 14, Okay Who Had Natural Disasters On Their 2020 Bingo Card?, Whumptober 2020, is something burning?, no. 21, no. 27
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27044641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AjanisApprentice/pseuds/AjanisApprentice
Summary: Or, "In which nature proves just as effective an Evoker as an actual Evoker."For Whumptober 2020, Categories 14, 21, & 27
Relationships: Amagi Yukiko/Narukami Yu, Amagi Yukiko/Persona 4 Protagonist, Amagi Yukiko/Seta Souji
Series: Whumptober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950598
Kudos: 11





	When Pushed By Extremes

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as part of the Moments In Beween-verse, though obviously this takes place post even the timeskip at the end of the game so not so much an 'In-Between' moment.

_ February 12, 2013. Evening. _

Yu cursed himself as he packed snow at the mouth of a cave. He should have known better after last year, after he and the other guys got stuck in that snowstorm. He should have realized that staying late was a bad idea, even if Yukiko had been insistent on it just being a few more slopes.  _ It’ll be fine! We’ll be quick about it, bomb right down a few more times and then head on back!  _ She had flashed him a brilliant smile and Yu couldn’t bring himself to deny her her fun. Even if he should have known better.

The storm had come on suddenly. Snow had begun to fall lightly by the time they were on their last slope but neither one could have imagined that it would get this bad so quickly. And yet soon after they had begun to trudge back the simple snowfall had turned into a full blown blizzard, worse even than the one he and the guys had been trapped in the prior year. Yukiko had quickly succumbed to the cold and Yu had been forced to carry his girlfriend on his back as he desperately searched for some kind of shelter to save them from the storm. All the while forced to listen to Yukiko’s breathing seem to get fainter, forced to feel her exposed face get colder and colder.

Luckily he had managed to find not only a cave but some scattered loose pieces of wood nearby. Yes it was soaked but if he could remove the outermost layer of bark Yu knew he’d be able to get a fire started. But first he needed to block the wind and snow from coming inside. And that meant packing snow at the cave mouth so as to make a barrier, while of course leaving a hole for smoke to flow out of so he and his girlfriend wouldn’t suffocate when he got that fire going.

It was exhausting work, helped not at all by the stress and fear over his girlfriend’s condition and Yu quickly found himself tiring. His limbs began to ache and his lungs burned with each breath. His movements began to grow sluggish and he began to think perhaps he should stop for a moment and take a break. Get a minute or two of rest and then continue rejuvenated-

**_FOCUS._** Izanagi’s voice that was his own and yet alien pulsed through his mind. **_We cannot rest, not now. Without full shelter, without a fire, to fall asleep would be a death sentence. Not just for us but for our beloved!_**

Yet even with his inner self urging him onwards, Yu felt himself slipping. His Persona may take the form of an elder god but he himself was still nothing more than human. The aches grew, the burning sensation in his lungs intensified, and by the time he had managed to erect a wall blocking the wind (with a small hole to filter out smoke) Yu could do no more. Making his way further into the cave, Yu collapsed next to his girlfriend. 

_ Just a moment. Just a moment to rest. That’s all I need, just a moment... _

* * *

Yukiko had no idea how long it had been since she and Yu had begun to head back. At first it was simply the storm making everything feel the same, their repetitive trudging causing one moment to bleed into the next. At some point, when exactly she wouldn’t be able to say, Yukiko found herself no longer walking but rather being carried on her boyfriend’s back. After that she kept fading in and out, never seeing more than a bleary haze of dull colors.

Finally, Yukiko’s vision managed to settle enough that she could actually make out what was around her, albeit with some difficulty due to a lack of much light. She seemed to be in a cave if the lack of light and the rocky floor underneath her was any indication. Aside from herself the only other things in the cavern were a large pile of twigs and branches, all of which were dripping wet, and her boyfriend who seemed to be out cold opposite her. 

Yukiko felt exhausted, so incredibly weary. Even having just regained consciousness she wanted nothing more than to fall back into the comfortable embrace of sleep. Surely just closing her eyes and resting would help? Taking some time to sleep off the fatigue would surely help clear away the numbness, right?

**_We cannot lose consciousness again._** Sumeo-Okami’s voice cut right through the warm haze that was beginning to cloud her thoughts, jolting her out of her stupor. **_This is hypothermia and we were lucky to wake up now. Falling asleep without a heat source will lead at best to some sort of permanent injury; at worse, and most likely though it will be fatal. Not merely for us, but for our beloved as well._**

But what could she do? As she scanned the room Yukiko zeroed in on the pile of wet branches. If she could get herself to move, maybe she could start a fire with those? There were rocks all over after all, perhaps she could manage to get a spark by scraping them against the walls and then she could light the wood? But the wood was wet, there was no way a simple spark would catch.

And even if the wood had been flammable it wouldn’t have mattered as Yukiko finally realized with horror that she couldn’t feel a single part of her body. Her arms, her legs, everything was numb. She tried to stand, to move, but her entire body refused to respond. No, she knew what it was like to try and move and have her body refuse to do so. It had happened on occasion in the TV world, where she'd be so exhausted that her body could do little more than twitch. This was worse; it was as if her nerves didn't even register the command to move in the first place. 

Panic began to set in. Yukiko found herself beginning to hyperventilate, losing focus on the world around her. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t do anything. She was going to die, her and Yu both. There was no one to save them.

No one to save her.

_ Just like before. A prisoner unable to do anything in her cage. _

The world began to fade away and go silent as memories began to overwhelm Yukiko.

_ An imposing castle, nothing more than a prison. _

_ A cage that surrounded her, trapped within like a small songbird. _

_ Fire all around her, her friends trying to fight the flames, a grotesque red bird with her voice and face shrieking with rage. _

And suddenly the world around her was replaced with pure black. Opposite her was no longer her boyfriend, but rather herself wreathed in dark shadowy flames.

**_Is this it then?_ ** Her shadow asked. **_Does the promise you made to me hold such little weight? In the end are you really just that scared fragile bird, insistent that if someone else can’t carry you then you won’t spread your wings and take flight on your own like you damn well know you can? Are you going to refuse to fly despite plummeting meaning your death?_ **

“And what should I do?!” Yukiko shot back, her voice breaking. “What can I do?! Yu is out cold and I’m basically paralyzed! I can’t move, let alone try and make sparks to fan into a fire!”

**_Since when have you needed a match or flint to bring forth an inferno?_ **

At that Yukiko felt a flame burst within as the world returned into view around her. The girl suddenly found that the numbness in her body was gone, replaced by a feeling of warmth deep within her, enveloping her in a familiar embrace as power radiated all throughout her. Power she hadn’t felt in nearly a year yet she knew had been there all the same.

As a flame burst forth in her eyes, Yukiko Amagi spoke a single word, her voice reverberating out into the world-

“Per...So...Na!”

-and the cavern was filled with the sound of shattering glass and roaring flames, a sound that woke Yu Narukami to the sight of his girlfriend haloed by Sumeo-Okami, radiating warmth and light like the sun the persona’s namesake was the goddess of, as a fire sprung forth amongst the wood.

**Author's Note:**

> Considering Evokers work by putting the users into such trauma that the persona is summoned even in the real world, I imagine the same could be done without an evoker if brought to the same level of trauma. This may in fact be canon already for all I know/remember.


End file.
